The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for controlling monetary transactions on gaming machines. More particularly, the invention relates toystems employing electronic funds transfer systems directly coupled to gaming machines for the purpose of obtaining playing credit.
Gaming machines are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Many slot machines, for example, now employ CRT video display screens in place of more traditional mechanically-driven reel displays. Further, poker and other games of chance are now commonly provided on video/electronic machines.
Currency handling apparatuses on gaming machines also are becoming more sophisticated. Where once only coin handling mechanisms were present on gaming machines, high denomination bill acceptors, capable of accepting $50.00 and $100.00 dollar bills, now find wide use. Such bill acceptors include advanced optical, magnetic, and electronic detectors used in conjunction with complex signal processing systems to identify counterfeit currency and prevent tampering.
Gaming establishments such as casinos have themselves adopted high technology solutions. For example, some casinos have connected their gaming machines to a local area network to monitor machine activity. In addition, some casinos now issue magnetic player identification cards which players use to obtain awards for frequent playing. A player holding such card inserts it in a card reader provided on a gaming machine before he or she begins play. Accounting software on the local area network then detects the card insertion, notes the player identity and follows the machine activity. In this manner, the casino tracks the gaming habits of various players.
Some casinos have even connected multiple local area networks to wide area networks spanning multiple casinos. Such wide area networks allow groups of slot machines at various casinos to be connected to one another for various purposes including use in "progressive" games. Progressive games allow jackpots from multiple machines in multiple locations to grow as one large jackpot (e.g., a million dollar jackpot for quarter (25 cent) slot machines).
Further, Automatic Teller Machines ("ATMs") are now frequently found in casinos. Thus, casino patrons can access funds from their accounts at remote financial institutions (e.g., banks). Presumably, casinos install such ATMs so that the players will have a large supply of cash available to them to play casino gaming machines.
In the same vein, various groups have proposed "cashless" gaming machines. For example, in the 1980's, Kenilworth Systems Corporation of Plainview, N.Y. marketed a cashless system for gaming machines. This system employed a proprietary encoded card that could be inserted into a card reader on a gaming machine. The machine would then identify an amount of available funds recorded on the card and convert at least some of those funds to credit for playing the gaming machine. After the player had exhausted the transferred credit, he or she could pay a cashier to encode the card with additional credit for further plays.
More recently, it has been proposed to provide casino gaming machines with the electronics for Electronic Funds Transfer ("EFT") processing. Such systems were initially proposed by Crevelt in "Slot Machine Mania" pp. 225-226, Gollehon Books, Grand Rapids, Mich. (1988, 1989). The same general systems were later described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,022 issued to Lucero. Such references propose systems in which a player simply inserts his or her credit or debit card into a card reader on a gaming machine, enters his or her personal identification number ("PIN") on a keyboard, and then requests a desired amount of funds to be transferred from his or her remote financial institution to the local gaming machine. The requested funds transfer would then be approved by the institution, transferred to the gaming machine, and converted to credit to play that machine.
As contemplated by Lucero, this system would result in higher revenues for casinos, as gaming machine players would be able to remain at a given machine for an extended period of time without visiting a cashier or ATM machine. While this may be true, it unfortunately means that a small minority of susceptible individuals will tend to financially over extend themselves. Allowing such individuals to have direct and easy access to their entire bank accounts could, under certain circumstances, be financially ruinous. Thus, the system proposed by Lucero likely will be unpalatable to at least some legislatures which regulate gaming.
Thus, there exists a need for an EFT system that allows cashless transfers of funds to gaming machines and yet protects against rash decisions by some players to divert large amounts of their savings to gaming.